Amazon Fresh expands to 270+ cities, posts 40% YoY growth in festive sales

Amazon Fresh, the grocery arm of Amazon India, has scaled its presence to more than 270 cities, a 4.5X jump from just about 60 cities two years ago. The expansion has been accompanied by strong consumer adoption, with the company reporting 40% year-on-year (YoY) growth in sales value in the first two days of its ongoing Great Indian Festival sale.

This comes on the back of a 50% year-on-year growth Amazon Fresh recorded in the second half of 2024, compared with the same period in 2023.

“We were in only about 30 cities in the country three years ago, and today we are in more than 270 cities. That’s a big achievement, but what makes us even happier is the fact that our consumers have consistently given us feedback that they admire the quality of fruits, vegetables, and perishables, and the savings they get on Amazon Fresh,” said Srikant Sree Ram, director at Amazon Fresh.

Changing consumer behaviour and category growth

During the festive season, demand has surged across categories. In the first two days of the sale, dry fruits and nuts grew 21x YoY, multivitamins 5x, sports nutrition 4x, and beauty products 70%. Even niche categories such as nail care grew 5x. Gifting categories too jumped, with gift sets growing 12X.

GST reforms that coincided with the Amazon Great Indian Festival sale also boosted festive sales. “Consumers saved crores of rupees, and in just two days, more than ₹260 crore was saved through SBI debit and credit cards,” he claimed.

The company has also observed a shift in buying behaviour from monthly stocking to weekly and weekend shopping, leading to an expansion of its “Super Value Days” from the first week of the month to every weekend. Savings are structured in three layers: competitive pricing, basket-level cashbacks, and an additional 5% cashback for Amazon Pay ICICI cardholders.

Expansion and supply chain integration

The 4.5X growth seen in expansion has been enabled by tapping into Amazon.in’s wide marketplace signals and Prime member density to identify demand clusters. Over the past two years, the company has doubled its farmer base—from 6,000 to 13,000—sourcing nearly 70% of fruits and vegetables from within 200 km of customer locations.

“We directly buy from farmers at our collection centres and settle their payments within four hours, the fastest in the industry. Quality checks happen at multiple stages, from collection to doorstep delivery, backed by temperature-controlled storage across four zones,” Sree Ram explained.

Amazon Fresh now offers over 40,000 products, up from just 3,000–4,000 three years ago. Fulfilment is managed through slotted delivery in two-hour windows, covering at least 90% of pincodes in any city it enters. Large metros such as Bengaluru have more than 20 fulfilment points, while smaller cities are served by a single centre.

New cities added this year include Gorakhpur, Dehradun, Jalandhar, and Zirakpur in the North; Coimbatore, Nellore, Hassan, Kodagu, Warangal, Vizianagaram, Vellore, Tirupati, Kottayam, Kollam, and Hubli in the South; and Jamshedpur, Asansol and Durgapur in the East.

Sree Ram shared that leading FMCG brands such as Tata, Britannia, Amore, and Heritage have seen strong consumer response during the festival.

“We feel very good about how the service is doing. Our focus is on controllable inputs—selection, delivery, savings, and quality—and we hope consumers reciprocate appropriately,” he added.

The expansion has also helped seller partners, said the company. More Retail Limited (MRL), for instance, has converted more than 370 of its offline stores to serve Amazon Fresh customers. “This has enabled our business on Amazon Fresh to grow at 65% year-on-year in 2024, and it continues to grow significantly,” said Vinod Nambiar, managing director, MRL.

The company expects demand for groceries, health, and beauty products to deepen further in metros, while tier II and III cities are driving growth in dry groceries, baby care, and pet products.